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European Research Group

The European Research Group (ERG) is a research support group for those of the United Kingdom's Conservative Members of Parliament who choose to subscribe. Defined by its opposition to the UK's membership of the European Union, the ERG is an IPSA-funded pooled service within the formal IPSA Scheme of MPs' Business Costs and Expenses and is one of two such publicly funded pooled services maintained for Conservative MPs. Serving an annual average of 21 MPs including cabinet members, the group's focus is the single issue of the UK's withdrawal from the European Union. In January 2018 Jacob Rees-Mogg was elected as the group's chairman, taking over from Suella Braverman.

Comments

Explanation

The European Research Group (ERG) is a research support group for those of the United Kingdom's Conservative Members of Parliament who choose to subscribe.[1]
Defined by its opposition to the UK's membership of the European Union, the ERG is an IPSA-funded pooled service within the formal IPSA Scheme of MPs' Business Costs and Expenses and is one of two such publicly funded pooled services maintained for Conservative MPs. Serving an annual average of 21 MPs[2] including cabinet members, the group's focus is the single issue of the UK's withdrawal from the European Union. In January 2018 Jacob Rees-Mogg was elected as the group's chairman, taking over from Suella Braverman.

Modern era

In 2015, having become a UKIP MP and having ceased to be a subscriber to ERG, Douglas Carswell, together with Mark Reckless and Stephen Crowther, established the UKIP Parliamentary Resource Unit Limited,[7] which was funded with a government grant of nearly £300,000. It was never listed as a 'pooled service' by IPSA. In January 2018 it was listed for voluntary striking off at Companies House by its then directors (Douglas Carswell and Alan Bown, a major UKIP donor[8]), and was formally dissolved on 17 April 2018.[9]

ERG Senior Researcher Robert Broadhurst, Conservative Parliamentary Researcher of the Year 2010 in the Dods Parliamentary researcher awards,[15] was succeeded as a senior researcher by Christopher Howarth formerly of Open Europe. Howarth represented ERG at the parliamentary researchers' and academics' conference on Brexit in November 2016,[16] and is a regular contributor to ConservativeHome and City A.M..[17][18]

In the period leading up to the EU referendum 10 members of ERG acted in an official capacity for Vote Leave; Michael Gove, Iain Duncan Smith, Liam Fox, Chris Grayling, Priti Patel, John Whittingdale, Ann-Marie Trevelyan, Bernard Jenkin, Steve Baker and Douglas Carswell.[citation needed]

According to The Economist, members of the European Research Group (ERG) met at Westminster on 11 September 2018 to discuss plans to bring down the prime minister.[19]

Recent subscribers

Subscribers to the pooled service provided by the European Research Group can be identified on the IPSA records of Parliamentary expenses. As an unincorporated association the group does not publish membership details or annual accounts. Various media reports speculate that a wider membership exists.[20][21]

Letter to Prime Minister 16 February 2018

A letter from the European Research Group to the Prime Minister was sent on 16 February 2018 urging her to stick to the principles outlined in her Lancaster House speech (January 2017).[76] The 62 signatories, all Tory Party backbencher MPs, including a former party leader, cabinet ministers and deputy Speaker, were:

Structure

Chair

Funding

The ERG has drawn criticism for its lack of transparency regarding its use of public funds to carry out research. After a report by openDemocracy found that more than a quarter of a million pounds had been claimed through MPs' official expenses since 2010, a call was made by Labour MPs for an inquiry to be carried out by the IPSA into the group's practices.[78][79] OpenDemocracy's September 2017 report commenced:

Taxpayers’ money is being used to fund an influential group of hard-line pro-Brexit Conservative MPs who are increasingly operating as a "party-within-a-party".

In response to the request the IPSA found no breach of rules regarding expenses.[80] In addition to public funding for the service the group also receives donations. Robert Broadhurst, a Senior Researcher for the European Research Group records his employment with ERG, sponsored by David Nuttall MP, as having been 'funded by Members' subscriptions paid for from their parliamentary allowances; a donation from GR Software & Research Limited; and a donation from Lord Lamont of Lerwick.' GR Software & Research Limited[81] has now been dissolved; its parent company, Pans (UK) Holdings Limited, is registered in the British Virgin Islands. Companies House lists Andrea Leadsom's husband, Benjamin Leadsom, as a former director of GR Software & Research Limited, along with her brother-in-law, Peter de Putron. Accounts for 2013 for GR Software & Research Limited[82] indicate significant Political and Charitable donations prior to being dissolved.